Before She Knew Him – Peter Swanson Review

So as the title suggest I will be reviewing Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson, This review is thanks to NetGalley as well as Faber and Faber, who provided me with an advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review. Now that’s out-of-the-way let’s get started.

Catching a killer is dangerous – especially if he lives next door. From the author of The Kind Worth Killing and Her Every Fear comes a chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbour could lead them both to murder.

When the neighbours meet, Hen spots a familiar object displayed on the husbands shelf. A sport trophy exactly the same as the one that went missing from the home of a young man who was murdered two years ago. Hen knows this because she’s had a long obsession with this unsolved murder, one which she no longer talks about, but can’t shake off either.
Could her neighbour, Matthew, be a killer?

You could go to his house. Sit in his office. He kept one souvenir – the fencing trophy – so maybe he kept more. It could be like show-and-tell.

So let’s begin with the characters, I really felt for Hen, she had a stressful past and this was constantly held against her and exploited by Matthew. At first I found reading her name slightly annoying, however I really warmed to her and was fully rooting for her to be believed. Now this is where I struggle to separate my feelings, I know that I should really dislike him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. This was mainly because of the excerpts of his past between chapters. This book was written in a way that created interest from the beginning and then captivated me to keep going and not put this down until I had finished. The plot was something that I don’t think I have come across before added with the two main protagonists and this made for a thrilling read that would keep you up at night wondering what your neighbours really get up to when you’re not watching.
I wish I could talk about this ending! Obviously I’m not going to spoil it for you but WOW! It slapped me in the face, I really didn’t see it coming and I think that it ended this book perfectly. I loved this read so much that there is no other option but for me to give this 5 cups of coffee out of 5. Seriously well deserved.

I hope you enjoyed this review as much as I loved this book. If you have read this then please comment below, I need to discuss this with someone! haha.

See you in the next post…